Chamber and committees

Scottish Government officials are currently liaising with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to determine the feasibility and cost of participating in the third round of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). This round of PIAAC will commence in 2014-15 and results will be available for Scotland in 2019-20. Advice for mnisters’ consideration is being prepared and a decision from ministers will follow.

The Scottish Government is committed to rigorous monitoring and evaluation procedures for all Scottish Government funded activity. The monitoring, reporting and evaluation system for Scottish Government funded projects is outcomes focussed and structured to enable disaggregation of monitoring outcomes at project, programme and policy levels. Applications to the Scottish Government International Development Fund are assessed on their commitment and capacity to conduct thorough and rigorous monitoring and evaluation and effective project and programme management, and adherence to these requirements is a condition of the grant contract. All applications are assessed by an independent contractor. Successful applicants are required to provide six monthly and annual reports for their projects evidencing progress made toward achieving their project outcomes and impact.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a review of the monitoring and evaluation framework. The cost of this activity will not be drawn from the International Development Fund.

The Government recognises the importance of developing children and young people as global citizens so as to prepare them for life in the 21st century.

Global citizenship education is a key learning context within the Curriculum for Excellence and is firmly embedded as a cross-curriculum theme across all ages and stages and the experiences of all learners in schools. A whole-school approach to global citizenship education, including citizenship, international and sustainable development education, will help ensure that children and young people are able to play a full and active part in society, politically, socially, environmentally and culturally and understand Scotland’s role within the wider world. Education Scotland supports global citizenship education in schools through a wide range of resources for schools and by supporting professional learning for teachers.

In addition we are also investing £108,000 in Scotland’s Development Education Centres over 2013-14 and 2014-15. This will enable the centres to raise awareness of a range of issues including poverty and the effects of climate change on the developing world, in schools across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has a Manifesto commitment to work with partners in business, charitable foundations and non-governmental organisations to co-ordinate efforts to build a Scotland-wide Climate Justice Fund.

We have already gone further than this and provided £3 million for this innovative fund, additional to our international development funding, and in the first round of funding announced in November 2012, the Scottish Government are supporting five water-related projects in Malawi and Zambia.

Further discussions have been held with officials regarding options for subsequent rounds of the Climate Justice Fund and other complementary activity undertaken in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme regarding sustainable energy for all. Furthermore, my colleague, the Minister for External Affairs and International Development attended a meeting on 5 June 2013 convened by the 2020 Climate Group which looked at options for developing the fund, including potential sources of funding. We look to engage with businesses in supporting Climate Justice when we hold our Climate Justice conference in Edinburgh on 9 October 2013.

I will ask the chief executive of Skills Development Scotland to respond to you.

The Procurement Reform Bill is aimed at ensuring public procurement processes are transparent, streamlined and proportionate and take into account social and environmental sustainability. Alongside this, the Scottish Fair Trade Forum has agreed to work with the Scottish Government to progress the uptake of fair and ethically traded goods and services through public procurement. Under existing legislation, it is possible to exclude any company from bidding if it has failed to fulfil any of its obligations in relation to the payment of taxes, and for higher value contracts companies will normally be asked to disclose any failures as part of the process of being selected to bid.

The Education into Enterprise project is funded by Scottish Funding Council (SFC). I have asked the SFC’s interim chief executive to write to you in connection with this matter.

All of our universities are engaged internationally, drawing on their own strengths and international relationships. Universities therefore provide students with opportunities for international engagement in Scotland and overseas. As autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own staffing, admissions, subject provision, curriculum and research it is entirely appropriate for Universities to promote and support the development of global skills.

The Scottish Government is also committed to supporting both inward and outward student mobility to contribute to the development of students’ global skills, through scholarships and study abroad schemes, and the NUS Scotland project “Developing Scotland’s Global Citizens”. In 2014-15 the Scottish Government will launch a pilot project offering funding for up to 250 Scottish domiciled students undertaking their undergraduate degree in the European Union.

We appreciate the efforts made by Universities Scotland to improve employability prospects for Scotland’s graduates and will follow with interest the outcome of the recommendations made in the report.

The Scottish Government already supports a number of paid placement opportunities for graduates. We are currently in discussions about how best to provide a coherent and consistent spread of placement opportunities to graduates and business going forward and will announce our plans once these discussions are concluded.

Studying abroad can open up opportunities for any young person, whatever stage of life and education they are at, including the chance to learn another language, experience different cultures, traditions and develop broader perspectives.

The Scottish Government is supporting the NUS Scotland led Developing Scotland’s Global Citizens project which aims to increase awareness amongst school pupils and students of the availability and benefits of studying overseas; and gather evidence on mobility opportunities. We will build on the learning from this project to work with the sector to develop further strategic actions on outward mobility, and as we do so will continue to support both inward and outward student mobility through a number of schemes.

In terms of outward mobility we provide funding to the EU Lifelong Learning Programme and opportunities for Scottish students to experience studying overseas through schemes including the Study China and Study India programmes, and through the Scottish Government’s Outward Mobility Fund, and we are enabling Scottish students to undertake technical work placements abroad through the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience programme. In 2014-15 the Scottish Government will launch a pilot project offering funding for up to 250 Scottish domiciled students undertaking their undergraduate degree in the European Union. All of these initiatives support the development of students’ global skills.